with some of those guys breaking
down, but you had to be smart
and stay out of the dust. The start
was definitely key, and I didn't
help myself there too much, but
we just kept fighting all day and
luckily it landed us on the po-
dium."
Phoenix Honda Racing's
Andrew DeLong played it smart
en route to fourth overall. "I've
seen enough of these dust races
that I knew a lot of guys would
drop out, so I played it safe," said
DeLong. "I tried to stay out of the
deep dust berms and just basi-
cally chugged along and stayed
out of trouble."
FXR/Husqvarna/SRT/Hoo-
sier's Layne Michael was fifth,
just over a minute ahead of Kai-
lub Russell.
Josh Toth returned to racing
with a seventh-place finish after
missing the last three rounds due
to a leg injury.
Tely Energy Racing's Liam
Draper topped the XC2 250 Pro
class with an eighth overall finish.
Draper followed Beta USA's Mike
Witkowski into the woods after
the start of the race and then
took the lead when Witkowski
stopped for a filter. The win was
the first in the class for Draper.
Coastal Racing/Husqvarna's
Craig DeLong managed to restart
his bike to finish ninth overall
(second place in the XC2 250
Pro class), while Husqvarna/Max
Motorsports/FXR's Evan Smith
finished 10th overall and third in
the XC2 250 Pro class.
After wrapping up the XC2
250 Pro Championship with
10-straight wins at the previous
round, Trail Jesters KTM Racing's
Ben Kelley made the jump into
the XC1 Open Pro class. Kelley
ran as high as fourth place before
yielding to the dust.
Tely Energy Racing KTM team-
mates Steward and Grant Baylor
retired early, as well, due to the
heat and dust.
XC Gear/ Enduro Engineer-
ing/ Husqvarna's Jake Froman
claimed his first-ever win in the
FMF XC3 125 Pro-Am class,
beating out class points leader
Trail Jesters KTM's Jesse Ansley
and Yamaha-mounted Chase
Colville.
Husqvarna's Tayla Jones
took the win in Saturday's WXC
Women's race, topping podium
finishers Fly/Maxxis/Pro Cir-
cuit/KTM's Becca Sheets and
GasGas North America's Kori
Steede. Beta USA's Rachel Gut-
ish finished fourth ahead of Am
Pro Yamaha's Rachel Archer of
New Zealand.
Shan Moore
OVERALL
1. Thad Duvall (Hus)
2. Ricky Russell (Yam)
3. Trevor Bollinger (Hus)
4. Andrew DeLong (Hon)
5. Layne Michael (Hus)
6. Kailub Russell (KTM)
7. Josh Toth (KTM)
8. Liam Draper (KTM)
9. Craig DeLong (Hus)
10. Evan Smith (Hus)
IN
THE
WIND
P46
Trevor Bolinger is
back to healthy
and finished out
the day on the
podium.
